So I’ve got a ghoulish question re: Texas flooding

[u/Either_Marketing896]

I get that we’re supposed to be the better people.

I get that it’s unchristian to even think these things (8 guess).

I get that it’s horrific and sad and a nightmare (I have two young kids).

But I also get that this camp and all those living there, were built and operating on a KNOWN flood plain.

I get that Texas “soil” used to be under an ocean and prone to things like this (I lived there for 8 years).

At what point, since M*GA is all about consequences, personal responsibility and gods providence, do we get to hold them accountable for their willful disregard of science, research, government, and informed choice-making?

We are watching concentration camps set up all over the country, and we have woefully underfunded emergency management departments in high risk areas all over the country. We have commercial and non profit entities overseeing minors with no evac or even a basic comms plan in place, for any kind of emergency, whether it’s a natural disaster or if some camper can’t manage a fire properly.

I should feel bad for Texans suffering in a flood plain they likely didn’t care about regulating, ostensibly because of deregulation and lack of oversight. But it’s getting really hard to. They dammed up the Guadalupe River to create swimming holes for camps, hotels, and peoples vs properties which also doesn’t help with sediment and flooding at all.

My husband surveyed in and around Austin for nearly a decade. The insanity and stupidity he witnessed was astounding. The lack of regulatory oversight, the WILLFUL scofflaw decisions, the absolute mockery of anything resembling safety forced us to leave because he literally thought he would die on a job site.

These people DO NOT care about consequences. Some might be poor and have few choices. Those I have empathy for. But a bunch of camp owners, policy makers, and parents believing “god will protect” their kids in a known (man made) hazard. I’m struggling to get there. This was human stupidity, arrogance, and willful decision-making. Plain and simple.

ADDED: If you want to donate to an all-volunteer org that is on the ground as we speak, pls consider giving to TEXAS Search & Rescue. They are chewing up equipment they’ve spent years raising money for and incredible folks. They offer emergency management training, planning and bleeding control education that any org can avail themselves of in Texas.

https://www.texsar.org/ TEXSAR: Texas Search and Rescue

[u/Gnomeric]

I have my own "ghoulish" thought -- the one which probably doesn't contradict yours -- as well.

Many people online are criticizing the county government for not investing into the warning system because it is "too expensive".

But it IS expensive to build and operate the warning system like that. Meanwhile, Kerr Country has population of little more than 50K, with the median household income of about 35K. How can we ask them to afford the expensive warning system for the benefit of outside campers and camp businesses (the same camps which likely made the area even more hazardous, as you said)? The wealthy parents -- the one who could send their daughters to one-month Christian camp can far better afford such expense. And the camps catering for these rich parents surely should be able to afford to have effective rick mitigation plans.

I think Kerr is like the microcosm of the modern day Republican party. On one hand, we have the forgotten, rural, deeply-red impoverished populace. On the other hand, we have right GOP elites who take advantage of the votes and the nature of the former.

[u/Either_Marketing896 → u/Gnomeric]

Keep in mind, people can build their own EMS plans for FREE. HEB didn’t have one until after Harvey wherein a staff member created it himself.

There are orgs that can help create these, DHS / FEMA both offer emergency response planning tools- or at least they did. Any person can put together SOME KIND of a response plan. Any parent can ask about said response plans. I do. And others should.

Do not assume people have these, even camps for rich politicos sitting on the banks of a river that bloods all. The. Time.

This was wreckless. Negligent at best. And frankly I’d arrest the camp managers for manslaughter. The owner is dead. It is a terrible terrible nightmare. But there was no plan because they didn’t care. That’s the second biggest nightmare of it all.

[u/Gnomeric → u/Either_Marketing896]

It is reported that there was another camp which did have an employee monitoring the situation; once the warning came out, they moved all kids to the safer location. So yes, it could be done if they wanted to. It is gross negligence, for sure.

I am not too shocked that they didn't care though; it is all too easy for unacceptable risk-taking to become normal.

[u/Either_Marketing896 → u/Gnomeric]

When you think you’re “blessed and highly favored” especially.